The
Franklin Humanities Institute sponsors an annual residential Seminar
consisting of Duke faculty, graduate research fellows, a post-doctoral
fellow, and one professional librarian. Seminar members, selected
each fall through a competitive process, receive an office in the
Franklin Center and (for College of Arts and Sciences faculty) release
time from two courses in order to pursue a year of dedicated research,
collaborative thinking, and innovative course development. Residency
in the Seminar offices allows scholars both time and space to concentrate
on their research while offering new opportunities for collaborations
that will generate new ideas for interdisciplinary teaching and
scholarship. The aim is to create a collective and productive humanities
“laboratory” in which, each year, Fellows make new intellectual
communities across departmental and disciplinary divides and think
together about a significant theme or problem with an expansive
historical, philosophical, or geographical scope. The true legacy
of the Franklin Humanities Institute will be in colleagues who return
to their departments invigorated by new intellectual partnerships,
new ways of thinking about their scholarship, and new ideas for
exciting courses for our undergraduate and graduate students.
The
Seminar is co-convened by two or three faculty members from different
departments, specializing on different historical periods, national
traditions, methodologies, or content areas. They convene a group
of approximately ten to twelve faculty (drawn from the College of
Arts and Sciences and the professional schools), one professional
librarian, two graduate students, one Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral
Fellow, and the occasional distinguished visitor to discuss a broad
and general topic for the year. For the first four years of the
Humanities Institute’s existence, “race” (sometimes
called “ethnicity” in pre-modern studies) has provided
the lens through which various other topics have been discussed.
The Franklin Humanities Institute will continue to host an on-going
“Seminar on Race” when the thematic focus of the residential
Seminar changes for the next few years to "Arts, Ideas, and
Information."
The
Franklin Humanities Institute sponsors an annual residential Seminar
consisting of Duke faculty, graduate research fellows, a post-doctoral
fellow, and one professional librarian. Seminar members, selected
each fall through a competitive process, receive an office in the
Franklin Center and (for College of Arts and Sciences faculty) release
time from two courses in order to pursue a year of dedicated research,
collaborative thinking, and innovative course development. Residency
in the Seminar offices allows scholars both time and space to concentrate
on their research while offering new opportunities for collaborations
that will generate new ideas for interdisciplinary teaching and
scholarship. The aim is to create a collective and productive humanities
“laboratory” in which, each year, Fellows make new intellectual
communities across departmental and disciplinary divides and think
together about a significant theme or problem with an expansive
historical, philosophical, or geographical scope. The true legacy
of the Franklin Humanities Institute will be in colleagues who return
to their departments invigorated by new intellectual partnerships,
new ways of thinking about their scholarship, and new ideas for
exciting courses for our undergraduate and graduate students.
The
Seminar is co-convened by two or three faculty members from different
departments, specializing on different historical periods, national
traditions, methodologies, or content areas. They convene a group
of approximately ten to twelve faculty (drawn from the College of
Arts and Sciences and the professional schools), one professional
librarian, two graduate students, one Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral
Fellow, and the occasional distinguished visitor to discuss a broad
and general topic for the year. For the first four years of the
Humanities Institute’s existence, “race” (sometimes
called “ethnicity” in pre-modern studies) has provided
the lens through which various other topics have been discussed.
The Franklin Humanities Institute will continue to host an on-going
“Seminar on Race” when the thematic focus of the residential
Seminar changes for the next few years to "Arts, Ideas, and
Information."